ABC Radio National talks to Cory Doctorow

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ABC Radio NationalABC Radio National’s The Book Show has an exclusive interview with copyright reforming SF writer Cory Doctorow. Here’s the official description:

“Since the 19th century copyright has served to protect the rights of authors. But has this protection become a hindrance to creativity? Supporters of creative commons licenses say the pendulum has swung too far towards protectionism, and that this is affecting our creative culture.”

Download the file direct |MP3| or subscribe to the podcast feed:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/bsw.xml

Matthew Hughes in a candid CBC R1 interview

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Archonate.com The Website Of Matthew HughesMatthew Hughes is a Spec-Fic (and crime) author living in Courtenay, British Columbia. A few weeks ago, he was interviewed by Sheryl McKay for CBC Radio One’s “North By Northwest” program. Here’s the |MP3| courtesy of Hughes’ own website. About the interview Matt sez: “I blather on for about twelve minutes. They had me do it at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, when I’m usually unconscious, so I ended up saying a few things I probably shouldn’t have.”

[via SFSignal]

P.S. FREE Apocalypse Al!

Review of Quantico by Greg Bear

SFFaudio Audiobook Review

SF Audiobook - Quantico by Greg BearQuantico
By Greg Bear; Read by Jeff Woodman
11 CDs – 13 Hours 25 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9780792748441
Themes: / Science Fiction / Terrorism / Saudi Arabia / Iraq/
“Well, its kinda the sum of your worst possible fears that you don’t know.”

-Greg Bear: June 21st 2007 on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show
responding to a request for a brief synopsis of Quantico.

The United States is under attack from all quarters, including from within. In the near future where America is in an arms race with high tech terrorists, sanity vies with ancient religious hatreds. Only three new FBI agents will be able to battle a plague as “10/4” becomes the next “9/11.” From Washington to Iraq confusion is afoot and only a covert mission to a forbidden city can preserve an already grim future.

This is Greg Bear doing Tom Clancy. The question is why? Is Bear pulling a Dean Koontz, (Koontz dropped SF for suspense in 1972)? Is he trying to shift his career out of a poorly paying Science Fiction genre into a more mainstream, higher paying, airport terminal fiction? If Quantico is anything to go by, one of my favorite authors has indeed thrown in the towel on idea SF. What he’s written here is a technothriller, set in a near future. Is this Hugo and Nebula award winning author, known for his Byzantine plotting and earth shattering ideas, still writing interesting fiction? Yes, but the SF elements are so minimized, playing such a marginal role in the story that I was ready to give up on it. I wanted Bear’s original Science Fiction ideas coming from his oddly motivated characters. What I got was better than Tom Clancy, but I don’t like Clancy. It was refreshing to see some post-9/11 terrorism fiction that includes domestic born terrorists, but I am not able to recommend it to SF fans.

Narrator Jeff Woodman was a capable reader, he disappeared into the text, voicing a clear delineation between characters from similar backgrounds while giving a individual and believable American and Arabic accents. Production values were, as expected, BBC quality.

Baen Audiobooks FREE

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Baen BooksBaen Books has FREE audiobooks! I knew that several of Baen’s hardcover first editions over the last few years had been coming with BONUS CD-ROMS full of eBooks. And I thought that was pretty cool, and clever too, but it was a big surprise to me to learn that they have often also included MP3 audiobook readings (complete novels and short stories). Even cooler, one thoughtful collector has archived the CDs on his/her website! And here are links to each…

Novels:

Hell's Faire by John RingoHell’s Faire
By John Ringo; Read by ????
21 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
With the defenses of the Southern Appalachians sundered, the only thing standing between the ravening Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of the 555th Mobile Infantry. Dropped into Rabun Pass, with a couple of million Posleen behind them and fourteen million to the front, the only question is which will run out first: power, bullets or bodies. But they have a hole card: far to the north the shattered SheVa Nine, nicknamed “Bun-Bun,” is undergoing a facelift. Rising from its smoking ashes is a new weapon of war, armed with the most advanced weaponry Terra has ever produced, capable of facing both the Posleen hordes and their redoubtable space-cruisers. Capable of dealing out Hell as only SheVa Nine can. But when push comes to vaporization, if Mike O’Neal and the other members of the 555th are going to survive, it will come down to how much Posleen butt Bun-Bun can kick. Prepare to eat antimatter, Posleen-boy.

The Far Side Of The Stars by David DrakeThe Far Side Of The Stars
By David Drake; Read by ????
35 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
While the Republic of Cinnabar is at peace with the Alliance, warriors like Lt. Daniel Leary and Signals Officer Adele Mundy must find other work—like escorting a pair of wealthy nobles on an expedition to the back of beyond! The Princess Cecile, the corvette in which they carved their reputations in letters of fire, has been sold as a private yacht, but she still has her guns, her missiles, and her veteran crew. Daniel and Adele will need all of those things as they face winged dragons, an Alliance auxiliary cruiser, jealous lovers, and a mysterious oracle which really does foresee the future. That won’t be enough, though, when they penetrate a secret Alliance base and find a hostile fleet ready for a war that will sweep Cinnabar out of a strategically crucial arm of the galaxy. Preventing that will involve skill, courage, and more luck than a sane man could even pray for; and it will require a space battle on a scale that a tiny corvette like the Princess Cecile has no business being involved in. But she’ll be in the middle of it anyway, because Daniel, Adele, and their Cinnabar crew would never turn their backs on a fight!

There Will Be Dragons by John RingoThere Will Be Dragons
By John Ringo; Read by ????
45 MP3 Files – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
n the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise-and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive. But scattered across the face of the earth are communities which have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven’s Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the Fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion. But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed.

Short Stories:

A Ship Named Francis by John Ringo And Victor MitchellA Ship Named Francis
By John Ringo and Victor Mitchell; Read by ????
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2003
Sean Tyler, a corpsman in the Royal Manticoran Navy, thought that a stint as a loaner in the explosively-growing Grayson Navy would boost his career. So, when he heard there was a slot vacant on board the cruiser Francis Mueller, he volunteered. Unfortunately for Corpsman Tyler, no one told him that almost everybody on board the Francis — from the clueless captain to the psychotic XO and the panicky chaplain — had been sent there because no one else in the entire Grayson Navy wants them.

Let’s Go to Prague
By John Ringo; Read by ????
1 |MP3| – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Baen
Published:
A pair of Manticoran Marines discover that a holiday can be even more fun if it involves spoiling StateSec’s day.

Beam Me Up podcasts a Harry Harrison short story The Repairman

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Podcast - Beam Me UpBeam Me Up, has an very fun reading of a vintage Harry Harrison story called The Repairman. in the latest show (Episode 69). The short first appeared in Galaxy magazine’s February 1958 issue. The host of the Beam Me Up podcast/radio show, Paul Cole, describes the story as a “If anything a precursor to [Harrison’s] Stainless Steel Rat character.” It also features an early description of the concept of hyperspace and hyperspace beacons. The same idea and term were used on Babylon 5 – the idea being, without beacons, ships would drift endlessly through featureless hyperspace, unable to discern their location relative to real space. I very much enjoyed this tale too, it’s sharp, funny and well read.

The Repairman by Harry HarrisonThe Repairman
By Harry Harrison; Read by Ron Huber
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Beam Me Up
Podcast: September 2007
The Mark III Hyperspace Beacon was the earliest type of beacon ever built–by Earth, no less. It was located on one of the Proxima Centauri planets, and it wasn’t working. This was one of those jobs when being an interstellar trouble-shooter wouldn’t have been so bad–if he could have shot the trouble!

Subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://beameup.podomatic.com/rss2.xml